Wonderer's Wish World 2: Evolutionary Rebirth

Noise Addiction

Day 32

Time 4:26AM

Location: Nightlight City Slums

It was happening again. Darius dropped the crystal from one hand to the other, giving his right one a much-needed break as he stretched it out. It ached, and there was nothing he could do about it, not without dropping the crystal, and therefore losing sight of Mira.

She'd understand, but Darius already did that, twice, and he didn't want to do it for a third time, especially not for a stupid reason.

Unfortunately for him, his discomfort was starting to show on his face.

"What is it?" Mira suddenly asked, and Darius jumped. Instantly, he tried to sort his face into something more neutral, but, well, it was already too late.

"I-nothing," he told her, stumbling. "It's fine."

Mira rolled her eyes. "Seriously, man. What is it? If you don't answer, I'm going to be annoying about it. And we have a long way to go."

Darius checked the map on his watch, even though he probably didn't need to, and, yep, she was right. They hadn't even cleared the broken-down residential section, though the taller buildings were a lot closer, and bigger, than they had been at the start.

"Is it the walking?" Mira asked, frowning at his legs. "We've been walking for a while..."

"No, it's not that," Darius assured her. This wasn't even close to the most walking he'd ever done, and thinking so was laughable. "It's..."

He bit his lip. It was stupid, but he was embarrassed to say. At Mira's look, though, Darius quickly spat it out.

"It's, uh, my hand. It's starting to cramp around the crystal," he told her, unable to meet her eyes. He felt ridiculous, and from her scoff, she thought it was, too. "I'm not used to holding something for so long..."

"That's what it was?" Mira asked him, sounding unbelieving. Darius wasn't looking at her, but he practically heard it as she rolled her eyes. "There's no need to suffer. We can fix that pretty easily."

"R-Really?" Darius asked, whipping his head over to look at her. He caught her as she floated away from him, off to the side of the road where she bent down and lowered her hand to the ground, towards a piece of long string on the ground. However, both he and Mira were surprised when her hand went straight through the string, swiping through it as if it didn't exist.

"Wha-oh," Mira said in realization, and Darius watched as she sighed, her eyes downcast as she gestured to the string.

"I... can't touch it," she said, deadpanned. "Because I'm dead. But, here. For you."

"...Right," Darius said, because the sudden, awful, and technically obvious reminder had reminded Darius that most people couldn't see Mira, and that those people staring at him like that might be doing so for... different reasons than he thought at first. Flushing, Darius crossed over to the string, scooping it up and finding, to his surprise, that it wasn't string at all. It was wire. He supposed that made it easier as he bent it around the crystal, awkwardly securing it before fashioning it around his wrist, the blue crystal pressed tightly to his skin without Darius having to risk arthritis while doing it.

"Thanks," he said, a little quieter than before, as he stood up. Darius rubbed at the back of his head, laughing awkwardly. "I can't believe I forgot that you are... well, never mind. Sorry, Mira."

Mira didn't look at him, a look Darius couldn't decipher on her face as she seemed to think over Darius' words. It took her a while to answer, seemingly in her own world, but when Darius started moving, she moved with him. Not walking exactly, but floating along with him.